• CarmineCatboy2 [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    8 months ago

    Well, I suppose it depends. Yeah, Russia won’t be an industrial power on the level of China and the odds are both economies will continue to complement each other in a resource for manufactured goods type of relationship.

    But not only has the Chinese economy become less and less dependent on exports since 2006, a Russian reindustrialization would still end up bringing manufactured inputs from China and elsewhere. Machinery, half finished goods, certain technological goods, and so on. An industrial policy is often at its best when it applies a strategic form of protectionism. You don’t want to bar every single product from entering the country, you want to protect and bolster local industry. Certain imports are also a form of investment.

    China’s industrial output continues to grow even as they make massive industrial investments across the world too. Mexico is a major beneficiary, but Brazil is getting some car and train factories too.

    The bigger question IMO is wether Russian institutions will continue to channel investment into industrial output, even after the war is over. If Russia is China’s Canada, there’s no reason why it can’t have industry.